Monday, May 14, 2007

Few in the Western world are aware of the story: in a day and a half in May, 1991, Israel airlifted 14,310 black Jews from Ethiopia to safety in the Jewish state.

Stephen Spector has written a thoughtful account of this rescue, titled Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews (Oxford, 2005) with in-depth analysis of all the people and organizations involved. It's now available in both hard and soft covers, and should be required reading for anyone who has ever heard (false) charges of racism thrown at Israel and Zionism. Really, how many countries would have done the same?